Lynn Lakner, of Helmetta, will be giving a lesson in Victorian embroidery at the Cranbury Museum on Sunday, May 15, from 1 to 4 p.m.
By: Josh Appelbaum
If you think modern needlework is a difficult craft to master, it is nothing compared to what women in the Victorian era worked with to create quilts and embroidery.
Lynn Lakner, a docent of the Cranbury Museum and a resident of Helmetta Borough, will host a presentation on the history of Victorian-era needlework in the United States from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Cranbury Museum.
Ms. Lakner said needlecraft was common among women in all socioeconomic strata in the period. However, a woman’s status in society dictated the type of needlework she did.
"The society ladies did the fancy work, such as embroidered handkerchiefs," Ms. Lakner said. "While the servants did the real work of the house, ladies got together in groups to do needlework."
Ms. Lakner said that today needlecraft is much easier, given the resources available to modern quilt-makers.
Ms. Lakner will display vintage needlecraft works likes rugs, quilts, embroidery and other pieces from her family collection. The pieces will vary from simple patchwork design clothes to an intricate lace piano shawl.
Ms. Lakner said that unlike today, when crafters can buy easy-to-use patterns and pre-cut cloth, a needlecrafter’s proficiency was directly proportional to her elders’ skill set. She said she learned needlecraft from her aunts, grandmother and mother.
Ms. Lakner, who is of English and Polish descent and spent her childhood summers at her Polish grandparents’ black angus cattle farm in Oneonta, N.Y., said needlecraft was a leisure activity she learned from the women in her family.
"I grew up around needlework," she said. "We had no television in the mountains, so we would make all sorts of crafts."
Ms. Lakner said it is far easier to produce high-quality needlecraft with the variety of patterns and materials available to today’s crafters.
"There are so many different pre-cut fabrics and patterns that are available in stores and on the Internet, not to mention the types of classes that are available and the amazing sewing machines on the market," she said.
She said a woman doing needlework in the Victorian era would have to draw her own patterns on pieces of burlap as a guide and hand-stitch everything.
In addition to pieces from Ms. Lakner’s family collection, the presentation will feature patterns and crafts donated to the museum.

